There are many occasions when, in casting reinforced concrete members, one length of reinforcing steel has to be connected at its end to another length to form a continuous member. To ensure the integrity of the finished member, it is essential that the tensile strength of the interconnection is at least as great as the tensile strength of the reinforcement.
Various interconnectors have been used in the past. For example, hollow threaded interconnection members have been provided, and ends of a reinforcing bar have been correspondingly threaded. In another prior example, rather than using a threaded interconnection, an interconnecting sleeve has been crimped to an end of one section of a reinforcing bar and connected by a thread to a second section. Where this has proved disadvantageous, the second section of the bar has been fixed within the connector by an epoxy resin adhesive. In other applications, one length of reinforcing steel has been welded to another.
Prior arrangements of this nature have suffered from disadvantages, not only from cost considerations, but also from difficulty of connection and time taken to connect.